OAKLAND — On a chilly, windy day at Messalonskee High School, the Edward Little track and field team was nothing but red hot.
The Red Eddies made a clean sweep in a dominant effort Saturday at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Championships for large schools. The Edward Little girls finished with 233 points, while Lewiston (99 points) finished second and Oxford Hills (92.5 points) third. For the boys, Edward Little scored 214 points, with Oxford Hills (134 points) finishing second and Lewiston (117 points) finishing third.
Freshman Makenna Drouin won four events — the 100-meter hurdles, the 100 dash, the 200 and the 300 hurdles — to lead the Edward Little girls team. She was most dominant in the 300 hurdles, finishing with a time of 46.85, more than four seconds faster than second-place finisher Audrey Bilodeau of Lewiston.
“This is my first year doing track in general,” Drouin said. “I wanted to do it in eighth grade, because I wasn’t doing softball anymore, and I like the idea of running.”
Payton Bell earned two wins for the Red Eddies, in the 1,600 and the 800. Bell’s time in the 800 (2:30.08) won the event by over nine seconds.
“Coming in, we’re a very confident team and we’re a big team,” Bell said earlier in the day. “So we have pretty good odds (to win)… It would mean a lot if we won this, because I didn’t get (to run in the postseason) freshman year, so this would be my first year coming to KVACs and winning. That’s pretty cool.”
Other winners for Edward Little included Kasey Smith (1,600 race walk), Katherine Garcia (3,200), Faith Small (javelin) and Saphryn Humason-Fulgham (triple jump).
For the Edward Little boys, Tudum Monday picked up multiple wins in the 110 hurdles (16.10) and 300 hurdles (42.27), while Jacob Jackson won the triple jump (43-06.25) and the high jump (6-00.00). Edward Little also had wins from Finn Thistle (pole vault) and Simon Hall (1,600 race walk). The Red Eddies also won the 4×800 meter relay.
Edward Little’s Payton Bell, left, and Messalonskee’s Charlotte Wentworth were close after the first lap of the 800 meter run that Bell won during the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship meet Saturday in Oakland. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal Buy this Photo
The Oxford Hills boys made a strong run, led by Brodi Rice, who won the discus (132-00) and shot put (42-02.25). The Vikings also got wins from Nickolas Plamondon in the 100 (11.47) and 200 (23.20) while he was fighting through a left leg injury.
“I had practice, and I had to run downhill for sprinting,” Plamondon said. “I tried to stop, but I pulled something. That was like a week ago. I’ve been putting ice, heat, anything at this point. When I was first out (in the 100), I was scared, but as I got about halfway, I just felt like I had to push myself more. As soon as I pushed myself, I felt (the injury) but didn’t feel it as much.”
Messalonskee finished fourth in both boys (69 points) and girls (52). Dylan Flewelling earned wins in the 3,200 and in the 1,600, where he needed a strong finishing kick to break away from Edward Little’s Owen Vincent.
“The plan was to push on the third lap, and hopefully have a little more of a gap on the fourth lap,” Flewelling said. “The third lap was a little harder, I didn’t get the gap I wanted. I just went and found another gear, and it felt really good.”
The team of Sam Fegel, Alonzo Michaud, Lorenzo Michaud and Cody Knox also led the Eagles to victory in the 4×400 relay.
Charlotte Wentworth led the Messalonskee girls with a win in the 400, finishing with a time of 1:02.47 nearly four seconds in front of the runner-up. The Eagles also received a win from Olivia Boudreau (7-06.00) in the pole vault.
“I was a little nervous because I knew everyone was right there with me (at the beginning),” Wentworth said. “But I just went out and did what I could.”
Skowhegan won the boys 4×100 relay (46.42), with the team of Zach White, Aiden Belanger, Billy Albertson and Leland Malyk.
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